Spellcards
Introduction Spellcards in SWR are a recurring theme in the Touhou series. The spellcard functionality is borrowed from SWR's prequel game IaMP, however in SWR they are selected, gained, and used entirely differently. During a match you have five empty spellcard slots that will gradually fill by attacking, defending, or being hit. When one of the slots fills, a card from your character's Deck will be randomly selected to occupy that slot. Fortunately, you have some control over what is put in your Deck, and in a match you are able to cycle between cards you have in your slot reserve. Cards are divided into three categories: Spell Cards, Skill Cards, and System Cards. Decks Decks are located in your profile and are divided by character. For each character deck you are allowed to choose up to 20 cards to fill your deck with, but you can only have a maximum of 4 of any duplicate card. Because spellcards are chosen from your deck at random during a match, adding more than one of the same type of card increases the odds it will show up. Example: you have a better chance of getting a card if you have 4 of them in your deck, than you are if you've only placed 1 of them in your deck. The optimal card selection for your deck will depend a lot on your playstyle and perhaps even who you're fighting against. Casting Cards Spellcards all have a casting cost which is indicated in the Deck menu. Each character has a maximum of 5 stocks of spellcard in their reserve which begin empty. During the course of gameplay, you will accrue meter by attacking and getting hit. Once your meter fills up fully, it will reset and you will gain a spellcard at random from your deck in your stock. In order to use a spellcard, you must first meet certain requirements. Each spellcard has a casting cost which can be seen in the Deck menu. In game the costs are visually represented by the gold glowing border around the number of cards that the currently selected card costs. Thus, the number of cards besides itself which it consumes is the cost of the card. Generally speaking, all System Cards and all Skill Cards have a casting cost of 1, meaning it will consume itself, Spell Cards will vary from 1-5 in casting cost relative on how powerful or useful the attack is. During battle, you may cycle through your stocks by pressing A+B to pick which spellcard you wish to use. This can be done at anytime including when the character is knocked down. Once you have made a decision, press B+C to use the spellcard. Once a card is used, it is consumed for the remainder of the match. Because of this, it can be important to cycle your reserve so that you don't accidentally consume a useful card. Note that you can only cycle the reserve in one direction, and you always consume cards in order from outward to inward, and new cards are always gained in the most outward available slot. Still, cycling your reserve before gaining a new card in a slot can help to separate valuable cards from one another. For example: :: ® (G) (B) In the above scenario, the G card will always come after the R card, and if the R card costs two then it will consume both the R and the G. If you were to wait until just before gaining a new card to cycle the R card to the last position, you can separate the R from the G once you've gained a new card, as follows: :: (G) (B) ® : then: ::(G) (B) ® (Y) :and then cycle to reorder: ::® (Y) (G) (B) The result is now your R card is back to being the currently selected card for casting, but rather than also consuming your G card, you have separated the two with the newly gained Y card. Card Types Spell Cards Spell Cards are traditional "Super Move" type attacks and have a very large variety of effects. Some are quite useful, while others not so much. Refer to the individual character sections to learn about specific spellcards. Skill Cards Skill Cards are a unique design to SWR. Each character comes with 4 "default" skill cards that are associated with the 4 special moves your character has from the start. These will increase the attack power or improve the effects of special moves depending on your character and card. In addition to these, there are Alternate Skill cards (alt.skill cards) that overwrite your character's normal special move set. Characters have different amounts of alt.skill cards that have a variety of different effects. Casting an alt.skill card during a match will swap the default special with the new special type, and increase it to level 1. For example, if you use Reimu's Alt.Skill Card "Youkai Buster", which has an input of 236B/C. From then on, when you input 236B/C, you will use Youkai Buster instead of the Hakurei Amulet. If you use "Youkai Buster" again, it will power up to Lv2. However, if you use the Skill card "Hakurei Amulet", 236BC will revert back to Hakurei Amulet. Skill cards and Alt.Skill cards max out at level 4. Their usefulness and how they level up per use is entirely dependent on each specific card, so experimentation is required to determine each card's uses. System Cards System Cards include things like defensive bombs and weather-based cards. Hisoutensoku-Only System Cards With the expansion of Touhou 12.3, 20 system cards are added to the game, each representing one of the 20 playable characters. Red Seal: Reimu's card, already unlocked. Works like a bomb card. Blue Jar: Marisa's card, already unlocked. Refills spirit orbs. Stopwatch: Sakuya's card. Two seconds pass after activation (probably gets interrupted if you get hit here) and then time freezes. You're allowed to move but can't attack or use bullets. Purple Sake Gourd: Suika's card. Work's like the old SWR yellow card. Fills up the equivalent of two spellcard's worth in your spirit meter. Purple Fan: Yukari's (???) card. Guard reversal card?? Pink Parasol: Remilia's card. Creates a swirling red shield in front of your character. Eats projectiles. "Bell With Pink Ribbons Around It": Yuyuko's card, conjures three spirits above your character's head that pause and then float towards the enemy to inflict damage. 3 hit, 1039 damage, 10% limit per hit. Orange 'Arm': Utsuho's Card. 4 different levels. Causes everything to deal more damage. Black Coins: Cannot be actively used. Broken Brown Square???: Reisen's card, works like the Purple Fan but removes enemy's current spellcard (similar to Snow effect). Vulnerable. Book with Pentagram: Patchouli's (???) Card. 4 levels. ??? Maple Leaf Fan: Aya's card. 4 levels. Slight speed boost. Golden Star with Red Snake: ???'s card. ??? Teal Star: Sanae's (???) card. Causes a light teal glow to surround you, slowly restoring 10% of your health much like the SWR version. Getting hit ends the effect.